Jurisprudence

Suri Ratnapala has taught jurisprudence, constitutional law and constitutional political economy for thirty years, principally at the University of Queensland but also occasionally at universities in the US, UK, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic. He held the Chair of Public Law at the TC Beirne School of Law until his retirement in 2015. Ratnapala's postgraduate teaching has included the supervision of a large number of successful Ph.D. students. The value of his contributions has been recognised through a number of international awards and fellowships including a Sir Anthony Fisher Memorial Award, a John Templeton Foundation Award and a Centenary of Australian Federation Medal. In 2012, he was invited to become a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. The Academy invites only 'persons of exceptional distinction in the discipline of law who are demonstrably committed to the objects of the Academy'. His book Welfare State or Constitutional State (1990) won the Sir Anthony Fisher Award. Suri Ratnapala is a co-author and contributing editor of a number of other books.

1. Introduction; Part I. Law As It Is: 2. British legal positivism: philosophical roots and command theories; 3. Herbert Hart's new beginning and new questions; 4. Germanic legal positivism: Hans Kelsen's quest for the pure theory of law; 5. Realism in legal theory; Part II. Law and Morality: 6. Natural law tradition from antiquity to the Enlightenment; 7. John Finnis' restatement of classical natural law; 8. Separation of law and morality; Part III. Social Dimensions of Law: 9. Sociological jurisprudence and sociology of law; 10. Radical jurisprudence: challenges to liberal legal theory; 11. Economic analysis of law; 12. Evolutionary jurisprudence; Part IV. Rights and Justice: 13. Fundamental legal conceptions: the building blocks of legal norms; 14. Justice.